[farcry-dev] Re: Farcry and a forum

Mon, 15 May 2006 14:20:10 -0700

Here is an old walkthrough I did which detailed how to integrate Fusetalk forums with FarCry. A little old, but it may get you started down the right path.

HTH,

--Nathan

On 5/15/06, Martin Orth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

Hello Everybody,

has anyone implemented a forums solution into farcry and is willing to
share the source? I need it for farcrycms.de to discuss farcry problems
online, or does googlegroups offer an api? So I could start fracry-dev-de
with a web frontend at farcrycms.de.

Thanks

Martin Orth

PS: There is a new video tutorial about farcry at www.farcrycms.de (sorry
german only).





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Title: FuseTalk Integration – A Walkthrough

FuseTalk Integration – A Walkthrough

By Nathan Mische

  • Introduction
  • Installing FuseTalk
  • Creating a Forum
  • Adding the Forum to FarCry
  • Configuring the Forum for External Authentication
  • Approving the Forum in FarCry
  • Conclusion

Introduction

The latest editions of the FuseTalk discussion forums from FuseTalk Inc. include a new feature know as the External Authentication Module. The External Authentication Module (EAM) makes it easy to integrate FarCry’s built in authentication system with a FuseTalk forum. This goal of this walkthrough is to outline the basic steps needed to install FuseTalk, as well as the configuration settings needed to allow users to login to the FuseTalk discussion forum with credentials from the FarCry client user directories.

Installing FuseTalk

Below are basic installation steps for FuseTalk. For more detailed installation instructions please see the documentation that comes with the FuseTalk product as well as the article "Tips and Tricks On Installing FuseTalk Forums."

  1. Download FuseTalk. Evaluation versions of the FuseTalk discussion forums may be dowloaded from the FuseTalk Inc. website at http://www.fusetalk.com/products/trynow.cfm. This walkthrough will assume that the FuseTalk Basic edition is being evaluated.
  2. Extract FuseTalk Files. For the purposes of this walkthrough extract the dowloaded Zip file into a new folder under the FarCry webroot named fusetalk. (ie. C:\Inetpub\applications\**YOUR FARCRY APPLICATION**\www\fusetalk)
  3. Create a Database. Create a blank database for FuseTalk in your database server. Like FarCry, FuseTalk can use MySQL, SQLServer, or Oracle.
  4. Create a Datasource. Create a datasource in the ColdFusion administrator for the newly created database.
  5. Run the FuseTalk Installer. Navigate to http://**YOUR FARCRY APPLICATION**/fusetalk/install/index.cfm to run the FuseTalk installer. Follow the on screen instructions.
    1. License Agreement. Accept the license agreement.
    2. Datasource Information. Enter the datasource information from step 4 above.
    3. Default Settings. Enter default forum information.
    4. License Key. For this walkthrough click the "Evaluate FuseTalk Basic" button to install a 30 day evaluation version of FuseTalk Basic.
    5. Administrator Password. Enter a password for the administrator user.
    6. Installing FuseTalk. Wait for FuseTalk to install.
    7. Installation Complete.
  6. Post Installation Steps. Complete any post installation steps listed in the FuseTalk documentation such as confirming ColdFusion mappings, removing installation directories, etc.

Creating a Forum

Creating forums in the FuseTalk is wizard driven. The FuseTalk Basic launches the forum creation wizard upon first login to the FuseTalk Global Administrator.

  1. Login to the FuseTalk Global Administrator. Navigate to http://**YOUR FARCRY APPLICATION**/fusetalk/globaladmin and login.
    1. Username. Use "administrator" for the username.
    2. Password. Use the password created in step 5e under Installing FuseTalk.
  2. Complete the Wizard. Follow the on screen instructions to create a new forum.

Adding the Forum to FarCry

To test the new forum navigate to http://**YOUR FARCRY APPLICATION**/fusetalk/fourm. Notice that at this point the FuseTalk forum is its own stand alone application, in no way associated with the FarCry site. FarCry's include object will be used to integrate the two applications, allowing the forum to be included in the FarCry tree.

  1. Create the Include File. Create a new file named _forum.cfm in the includeObj directory of the FarCry installation. (ie. C:\Inetpub\applications\YOUR FARCRY APPLICATION\includeObj\_forum.cfm) Edit this new file so that it relocates users to the new forum. Using the <cflocation> tag for this task, the new _forum.cfm file should have one line of code:

    <cflocation url="" addtoken="yes">
  2. Login to the FarCry Administrator. Login to the FarCry Administrator and click on the site tab.
  3. Add a Navigation Node. In the site management tree, add a new navigation node for the FuseTalk forums. For this walkthrough assume a new navigation node is created under Home and titled Forums.
    1. Title. Forums
  4. Create the Include Object. Create an include object under the new Forums navigation node which includes the _forum.cfm file from step 1 above.
    1. Title. Forums
    2. Include. _forum.cfm
    3. Display Method. displayDefault.cfm
    4. Tesaser. Discussion Forums
  5. Configure FarCry Permissions. Change the permissions on the new Forums navigation node so that the Anonymous policy group has no permissions. Make sure other policy groups that should have access to forums have at least the view permission for the Forums navigation node.

Configuring the Forum for External Authentication

Once the Forums branch is approved, site users will have to login before they can navigate to the FuseTalk fourms. When users login to a FarCry site, their profile information is stored in the session scope in a structure named dmprofile. Information from this dmprofile structure can be used by FuseTalk's EAM to seamelsy log users into the FuseTalk application.

  1. Login to the FuseTalk Global Administrator. Login to the FuseTalk Global Administrator and select Forums > Management from the menu.
  2. Enable External Authentication. In the forum management window, select the authentication tab. Select "Yes" for External Authentication then click the "Update Settings" button. Click OK on the _javascript_ alert box.
  3. Run Authentication Wizard. Click the "Open Authentication Wizard" link. Click OK on the _javascript_ alert box. Complete the authentication wizard.
    1. Welcome. Click next
    2. Authentication Method. Select Session and click next.
    3. Session Variables. Enter the following values:
      1. Username Variable. session.dmprofile.username
      2. Email Address Variable. session.dmprofile.emailaddress
      3. First Name Variable. session.dmprofile.firstname
      4. Last Name Variable. session.dmprofile.lastname
      5. CFAPPLICATION Name. **YOUR FARCRY APPLICATION NAME**
    4. Require Login. Select "Yes" for Require Login.
      1. Login URL. The login URL should be the FarCry login form's URL with the "returnURL" URL parameter appended. The returnURL parameter's value should be the FarCry URL for the FuseTalk forums. (For example, if the objectID of the Forums navigation node created in step 3 under Adding the Forum to FarCry is 123-ABC, then the returnURL parameter would be the URL encoded format of "index.cfm?objectID=123-ABC" or "index%2Ecfm%3Fobjectid%3D123%2DABC." Thus the complete login URL value entered into the FuseTalk's Authentication Wizard would be "http://**YOUR FARCRY APPLICATION**/farcry/login.cfm?returnUrl=index%2Ecfm%3Fobjectid%3D123%2DABC."
    5. Authentication Review. Review the settings and click "Finish."

Approving the Forum in FarCry

To make the new forums accesable to site users, approve the Forums branch created in Adding the Forum to FarCry.

  1. Login to the FarCry Administrator. Login to the FarCry Administrator and click on the site tab.
  2. Approve the Forums Branch.

Conclusion

The new External Authentication Module for FuseTalk along with FarCry's extensible framework should make integrating these two applications a snap. While the steps above outline only the most basic integration, FuseTalk's EAM and FarCry are flexible enough to handle fairly complex configurations. For more information on the FuseTalk's EAM, see the article The FuseTalk External Authentication Module.

 

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